I’m writing to you from Muswell Hill in the UK.  It’s a leafy part of London, and I live in a fabulous 1930s block of flats(apartments).  There is no central heating, and it has massive windows, so it’s freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer!  Right now, I am huddled up beside my 1970’s gas fire with a very big 1980’s mohair jumper(sweater).
We are having a cold snap! Here’s what my abode looks like in warmer weather.

Where I live.

I’m a film archivist, and in my day job I work mostly with the British Movietone cinema newsreel, which is a treasure trove of 1930’s – 1970’s content.  I regularly get totally lost in the collection, researching obscure events of the 20th century.

I am a film archivist working with British Movietone. 

My passion for the last 15 years, or so, has been to collect the favourite recipes of movie stars of the golden era of Hollywood.  There was a real craze for fan magazines and cookbook creators to ask film stars for their signature dishes in the late 1920’s onward.  This trend slowed down in the 1960’s, but a trickle of recipes can still be found for the more recent eras.  I have over 7,000 recipes in my collection. To say it has gotten a bit out of control is a total understatement! Here’s the 1930’s pamphlet that I bought in a dusty stamp collector’s shop, which started my obsession.
It cost me £12 (about $16).

My 1930’s cookbook pamphlet

I started blogging in May 2006.  At that time I was living on a houseboat on the Thames in London.

My houseboat on the Thames

I was recovering from a broken heart, and decided that learning to cook would be a good distraction from feeling miserable all the time.  I had a sudden brainwave from out of nowhere, I would start cooking my way through my crazy movie star recipe collection.
I had a tiny tabletop cooker that had to be turned on with a pair of pliers, but I really enjoyed looking at my recipes, planning what to cook, and experimenting in my little floating caravan on the river.  This is the tiny kitchen where it all started.

My houseboat kitchen

My blog is called Silver Screen Suppers, and when I started, I didn’t think anyone would read it. I just wrote about the recipes that I tried, and in my mind it was a kind of an online diary.  I started blogging long before food blogs really took off, so I didn’t think
to post up the recipes, or even photograph the food that I had made. Things have changed such a lot since then.

The website banner for my blog Silver Screen Suppers

The very first recipe that I cooked was Bette Davis’ Boston Baked Beans. If I go back and read the blog entry from that day in May 2006, it really reminds me so much about that afternoon. The way it was pelting with rain, the way my friend Heather’s old flat looked, Heather and her ex-boyfriend falling asleep on the sofa, while I carried on watching
All About Eve all on my own…

Bette Davis in All About Eve.  
Bette Davis’s Boston Baked Beans was my first blog recipe.

As I’ve gotten into reading other blogs, it’s this kind of detail that I really enjoy. I am very nosey indeed, so I love getting glimpses into how people live their lives.  Blogs to me are a little peek into other worlds.  I absolutely love them.  Thank goodness for the internet!

The thing I love most about being a blogger are the connections that I have made
with people that I would never have encountered in real life.
I have met people online that I consider firm friends now.
Greg Swenson, who writes the Recipes for Rebels blog, in Greece,
Yinzerella, who writes my favourite food blog  Dinner Is Served 1972, in Baltimore,
and folks who cook recipes from my blog and send me photographs, like this one of Natalie, dancing round the kitchen whilst making Rudolph Valentino’s Secret Spaghetti Sauce.  I have never met Greg, Yinzerella, or Natalie in person, but I very much hope to one day.

Natalie, my blog friend, cooking up
Rudolph Valentino’s Secret Spaghetti Sauce

My absolute favourite movie star is Joan Crawford, and a few years ago I decided to put together a collection of her recipes in print for a Joan Crawford cookbook. It was such a fun project, as I had to cook all of the recipes, tweak them a little bit for the modern chef, and learn all about self-publishing.  I think the Joan cookbook took about 2 years to put together.

The cover from my cookbook Cooking with Joan Crawford

The Cooking With Columbo Cookbook, which is coming out on the 20th of February, took around five years to write.  The process for this was very different from my other cookbook. In the Columbo Cookbook, I wanted to write an appreciation of each episode, then propose a recipe for a dish to eat alongside.  I bought a mini-DVD player and had Columbo episodes on repeat in my kitchen whenever I was cooking, so I would absorb them by osmosis!  I sometimes watched an episode before work too, in bed, while I was writing about it.  I have a full-time job, so I write in the early mornings and on Saturdays.  I test-cook recipes mostly on weekday evenings  On Sunday I collapse!

The Cooking With Columbo Cookbook contains several of Peter Falk’s favourite recipes, plus lots from his co-stars such as William Shatner, Janet Leigh, Myrna Loy, Celeste Holm, Johnny Cash, Dick Van Dyke, John Cassavetes, Donald Pleasence, Rod Steiger and many more.

One of the most fun things about writing a food focused blog is getting involved in cook-alongs.  For those who aren’t familiar with them, these are events where a specific recipe, or dish, or foodie theme, is proposed, and bloggers all around the world, cook something and write about it on their blog.  I’ve done quite a few of these, and they are so much fun!

I’m organizing a cook-along to celebrate 50 years of this classic TV detective series, and I’d love as many people as possible to join in.  Everyone is invited, and you don’t have to be a blogger to participate.  I’d love folks who just dig Columbo, or love chili, or just fancy joining in with a cook-along, to participate – there are some really groovy prizes on offer!

All the details for the cook-along are here, I’d love for you, Annette, and some of your readers to join in!  There’s a vegetarian version of the chili, as well as a meat version.

She Bakes, too!

Other Good Stuff about Jenny,
in addition to her Cooking and Baking

I made fougasse.  Peek-a-boo!

My Top Three Favorite Films

1 – Gone With the Wind (I watch this at least once a year)

2 – All About Eve (flawless!)

3 – Sunset Boulevard (Gloria Swanson is magnificent)

TV Series that I Love 

1 – Columbo (of course!)

2 – Burke’s Law (only discovered this recently, but it’s brilliant)

3 – The Rockford Files (my friend lives in the same block of flats as me and we get together once a fortnight (every two weeks) to watch one of these.  There are 123 episodes and 8 specials, so it’s going to take us some time…)

It’s been such fun writing a guest post for you, Annette!
If any of your readers care to have a peek at what I’m up to,
here are all my details…

www.silverscreensuppers.com

@silverscreensup on Twitter

Silver Screen Suppers on Facebook

silverscreensup on Pinterest

Cooking With Joan Crawford is available from blurb.com

Cooking With Columbo will be available on Amazon on February 20th